Before the trip, I was told that it was very windy, cold and rainy in Wellington at this time of the year. Honestly, I felt a bit depressed and not very excited about the trip. I am a bit too scared of getting cold and wet, you see.

However, when I got here everything was completely different from what I thought about Willy and NZ at home. The weather is not very cold. It is sunny and sometimes it rains but just a little. The air is amazingly fresh and it is what I most appreciate as it does not exist in Vietnam, especially in Hanoi, where I live. And there are a lot of trees, plants and flowers of different colours. So fabulous!

Houses and traffic in Welly are in great order. I have not seen any traffic jams in the city since I came here. Welly people look all happy, healthy and very friendly. I am really of the opinion that NZ is one of the world’s places worth settling in.

As we were warned, it is the moment Welly is suffering from bad weather. Very cold and wet and windy. It is likely that no one or nothing could pull me out from my cozy room now. From the window I can see a few people tottering on the pavement in the blowing wind. It sounds as if the city is still at night. Just some noise coming from one or two approaching cars. Fortunately, Net and Blog are able to keep me away from being distressed and homesick.

It is just a bit later than 8.00 in Ha Noi. My son is at school, working very hard on the coming English language Contest for HN’s high shool students in the next few days. Luck to you, boy!

The National Foreign Languages 2020 Project or Project 2020 as it is often called is where I am working now. Its office is located on 2nd floor, B7Bis Building, Bach Khoa Ward, Hai Ba Trung District, Ha Noi.

It is a Government’s project which came into existence in 2008 after Vietnam’s Prime Minister had signed Government-level Decision 1400, which approved the project with its goal, capitals, phases and implementation plans and so on.

The Project is capitalized at 9,700 billion VND or equipvalent to approximately 500 million USD and divided into three phases. The first phase 2008 – 2010: Preparation stage; the second one (2011- 2015): Development stage; and the last one (2016-2020): completion one. Most of investment will be spent on the last two phases. One thing to remember is that as it is a government project, all its capital comes from the Government budget. In addition to this, Project also welcomes evry kind of financial support from overseas organizations, institutions and governments.

Project 2020 has a clear but ambitious goal: ” By 2020, most Vietnamese students graduating from secondary, vocational schools, colleges and universities will be able to use a foreign language confidently in their daily communication, their study and work in an integrated, multi-cultural and multi-lingual environment, making foreign languages a compatitive advantage for Vietnamese young people in an international high-demanding labour market”.

To achieve this goal, it has clarified its objectives, tasks, routines and action plans. The tasks are assigned by the PM, so they must be carried out by every city/province’s People Committee and every education institution across the country.